Friday, 20 May 2011

The "sinking" Maldives saved by a Dutch construction company

Dutch built floating islands - future for the Maldives?

The president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed has for years now been one of the "stars" of the "progressive" global climate change establishment. But, now it appears that he does not need to do any more underwater cabinet meeting stunts: In case Nasheed´s tiny island state actually would begin to disappear - which, of course, is highly unlikely according to those scientists who have real knowledge about the situation - the country can continue its existense on floating islands to be constructed by a Dutch company!

The Maldives government and the Dutch Docklands company have already signed an agreement to build the first floating islands, which among other things will include a floating golf course:

"We told the president of the Maldives we can transform you from climate refugees to climate innovators," said Paul van de Camp, chief executive officer of floating architecture specialists Dutch Docklands, developer of the project, CNN reports.

The $500 million project will offer a course with 27 holes situated on three interlinked islands. The development also includes villas and a conservation center.

(The Maldive islands government says it will not have to pay any of the costs. One would not be surprised if the Dutch construction company and the Maldive government already have secured major EU climate change funding for the project).

The CEO of Dutch Docklands, Paul van de Camp said in an interview that this mega project will "diversify the Maldivian fame in the outside world", so the publicity seeking Nasheed should be pleased. Now, there should not be any need for him to continue his hoax about the rising sea levels as a consequence of human induced climate change. Instead, cabinet meetings on the floating golf island could make great photo opportunities for the international media!

Neither will there be any need for the new "Hollywood style" documentary ,"The Island President", which was announced in a presidential press release on April 24:

A Hollywood-style documentary feature film about the Maldives and climate change will be premiered at an international film festival later this year.‘The Island President’ is a fly-on-the-wall, 90-minute documentary film, which highlights the Maldives’ efforts to combat climate change and rising sea levels

The film has been made by Actual Films, an Oscar and Emmy-winning American documentary film company, based in San Francisco.

As could be expected, the producers of the film give Nasheed the full Hollywood super hero "treatment" in the documentary (but this will be of no use anymore, thanks to the Dutch!)

The productions costs of the film were 1,5 million USD, according to the same press release:

The film was paid for in its entirety through grants from the Ford Foundation, the American Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the MacArthur Foundation, the Atlantic Foundation, the Sundance Institute, and small donations from American well wishers.

PS
It is interesting to note that there still seems to be some loose money around in the US for this kind of dubious projects